So I get back from a rather wearisome training morning, and what do I find in my pigeon-hole?

This:

(Also available here and here, but Blackwell's have the best picture.)

My copy is an advance - it actually becomes available to the general public from 1st December onwards. But, fundamentally, I am now a real, live published author. Wow!

NO-ONE need feel obliged to buy this just because they know me. But if you're interested I can a) give you a bit more of an idea of what's in it than the web-sites do, so that you can decide whether you'd like to buy it or not, and b) order it on your behalf at a 30% discount (i.e. £35 rather than £50).

In the meantime, please excuse me while I go and spend the rest of the day on an excited high...

Well, it's basically about why Roman cities had suburbs, what made those suburbs different from the centre, and what people did with them. I'm setting it in an empire-wide context, so there's some stuff early on about how Greek authors talk about suburbs (using the word proasteion). But most of it is about the western empire, and of course particularly Gaul - in both the high empire and late antiquity. The evidence for the bulk of the discussion is mainly archaeological, so there's lots of pictures and maps. Finally, I close by looking at how an understanding of suburbs can help us look at wider questions, such as the nature of a Roman city, its relationship with the countryside, and the relationship between the provincial elites and Rome.